"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
Ah, yes. A memorable first line. Sadly, Mr Dickens' vision of a corrupt government on the verge of collapse did not end with the French Revolution. Welcome to America in the beginning of the 21st century.
It was a time of wisdom and somber reflection; it was a time of ignorance and "passionate intensity." It was a time of social mobility, advances in technology, increased life expectancy and the accumulation of wealth. It was a time of death, disease, famine and war, unleashed at home and abroad by the militarized horseman of the American apocalypse, killing millions while subjecting millions more to horrific suffering and despair.
It was a time of revolving doors, insider trading, golden parachutes, private islands, off-shore accounts, tax breaks and LLC investments. It was a time of stagnating wages, increased workloads, militarized policing, twenty-four-hour surveillance, poverty, homelessness, white supremacy and for-profit health care.
It was a time of unchecked US aggression, invading, bombing, murdering and maiming in virtually every country on the planet. It was a time of "kettling," crackdowns, christian nationalism and reactionary politics aimed at abolishing individual liberties. In 2011, US elites gave the military the power to arrest any US citizen, at any time, for any reason, without charges or a trial. You can now be disappeared, along with the Magna Carta and over eight centuries of common law. Take that, Sydney Carton.
It was a time of influential liars, pathological narcissists, smooth-talking hypocrites, artificial celebrities and religious bigots. It was a time of hungry children, struggling families, neglected seniors, dehumanized workers, demoralized teachers and vilified health care providers.
It was a time of ruthlessness and savagery packaged as "exceptionalism" spewed by charlatans and frauds. It was a time of endless pain, crippling fear, violent extremism and fairy tale solutions. A rough beast slouches toward DC, whipped to a frenzy by lunatics who worship torture and murder, an obscene bit of Bronze Age sadism encouraged to this day by black-robed assassins well versed in human sacrifice.
Ironically, or not, in spite of the drama, the divisions and the petty disagreements, it was also a time of collusion between Democrats and Republicans, of ideological bipartisanship, secret vows swearing allegiance, not to the Constitution, not to voters, but to Wall Street and the military / intelligence subsidiaries that support it. E Pluribus Unum: Latin for "greed is good."
Below are two prime examples of this structural rot.
Congressman Jim Jordan (R Ohio)
Mr Jordan is a founding member of the Tea Party and later helped organize the so-called "Freedom Caucus," both fascist-leaning, corporate controlled, pseudo-christian depositories for conspiracy theories, stupidity and disinformation. Mr Jordan is and always has been a flame thrower for the Koch Brothers and thus all things corrupt. Little surprise, then, in spite of being in Congress for 15 years, he has zero legislative achievements. He's voted against everything from fighting homelessness and ensuring voting rights to protecting children. On the other hand, he did try to crash the economy in order to get rid of Social Security, he did betray the leadership of his own party, he did labor tirelessly to gut the ACA, and he did lead the charge to weaponize Benghazi, shamelessly smearing Hillary Clinton, the State Department and everyone in between.
(Perhaps the best measure of Mr Jordan's character is his tenure as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University (1987-1995), where it appears he lied about his knowledge of wide-spread sexual abuse of the athletes. Mr Jordan has denied the charges, but he's never had to respond to them under oath. Fun fact: an OSU investigation revealed that Richard Strauss' criminal behavior was "an open secret" as far back as 1979. So, just to be clear, the administration knew, the 22 coaches who were interviewed said they knew, and the 177 athletes who were abused knew. Even one of the referees knew. Everybody knew, except Jim Jordan.)
But Mr Jordan is not just a rabid attack dog and cowardly liar. He's a certified, full-throated traitor.
The January 6 Committee's final report states that Jordan carried out a "systematic disinformation campaign" to undermine the 2020 presidential election. Jordan spoke with Trump on the morning of the insurrection, in the lead-up to the violence, for ten whole minutes, and lied about it repeatedly. He sent Mark Meadows a memo insisting that the administration reject Biden's electoral votes. He attended the secret White House meeting where the illegal plan to block the certification was discussed in detail. When the committee subpoenaed the congressman for testimony about his involvement in the coup, he responded with more lies and distortions about congressional authority, and then refused to cooperate altogether. According to one observer, Jordan's skill set throughout this ordeal consisted of "spreading right-wing poison" and "character assassination."
A boorish, unscrupulous thug, Mr Jordan is now chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Somewhere in France, Roger Cly is smiling.
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